"If you hit somebody hard enough, they will give up," Bob Sanders says. "You can feel their body go limp and they'll just surrender. So every time I hit somebody, the goal is to knock myself out. I know that if I hit somebody hard enough that I can feel it, it's hurting them 10 times worse."

"He simply doesn't accept someone not being physical," says Ed Hinkel, who played with Sanders in high school, college and briefly with the Colts. "If you don't make the tackle or hit the other team hard enough, Bob is going to get mad. He wants everyone on the field to know that he is there and his team is there."

Sounds a little like DRob. i wish we could have more guys with that mentality, instead of "paycheck players" we;ve got

Why? Rodney pretty much acts the same way, and look how long he has been in it.

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Four inches and about 25 pounds.

No seriously though, Sanders never wraps up. He always hits. It's great, don't get me wrong, but he's already missed quite a bit of time through his short career so far and he can't keep banging around like that without paying the price eventually. He's running full speed into bigger guys, and no matter how tough you are physics eventually wins. Smaller players can be successful, of course, but they have to adapt a bit. Sanders just tries to kill everyone, and it seems like nearly half the time he hurts himself just as badly.

No seriously though, Sanders never wraps up. He always hits. It's great, don't get me wrong, but he's already missed quite a bit of time through his short career so far and he can't keep banging around like that without paying the price eventually. He's running full speed into bigger guys, and no matter how tough you are physics eventually wins. Smaller players can be successful, of course, but they have to adapt a bit. Sanders just tries to kill everyone, and it seems like nearly half the time he hurts himself just as badly.

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I heard Dungy talking about some of the methodology in selecting players and a big part of how he grades players is "delivering blows". Not everyone is as sudden as Sanders, Ronnie Lott and players such as our own Dunta Robinson despite having similar physical characteristics....he spoke in glowing terms about how highly he had Sanders graded in this area. The Colts will just get another one when Sanders wears out. Polian is one of the best in the biz right now.

I heard Dungy talking about some of the methodology in selecting players and a big part of how he grades players is "delivering blows". Not everyone is as sudden as Sanders, Ronnie Lott and players such as our own Dunta Robinson despite having similar physical characteristics....he spoke in glowing terms about how highly he had Sanders graded in this area. The Colts will just get another one when Sanders wears out. Polian is one of the best in the biz right now.

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True... they're doing a really good job of restocking.

And I know what you're saying about delivering the hurt, as opposed to taking it. I just remember Marlin Jackson going airborne to hammer some dude last weekend and ending up on the turf! It was a great hit, but he hurt himself. Our CBs are pretty small (<190) and they get banged around quite a bit when they're actually making tackles.

While Sanders' personality was just the shot of intensity Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz craved, it also was a danger to his teammates. Sanders once separated running back Fred Russell's shoulder during a drill, prompting Ferentz to instruct the defensive coaches to hold Sanders out of several full-contact drills -- for his safety and the team's.

"I'd like to say we instilled that in him, but that's the way Bob showed up," Ferentz says. "That's just Bob. And even though some of those guys getting hit weren't thrilled by it, boy were we glad to see him. He brought a toughness that our team needed."

"He simply doesn't accept someone not being physical," says Ed Hinkel, who played with Sanders in high school, college and briefly with the Colts. "If you don't make the tackle or hit the other team hard enough, Bob is going to get mad. He wants everyone on the field to know that he is there and his team is there."

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Is this not the exact type of defensive player we need? One of anyway. Having one good safety would do wonders for this team.